2019-19553. Completion of Interim Rules

AGENCY:

Office of the Secretary, USDA.

ACTION:

Notification.

SUMMARY:

The United States Department of Agriculture is announcing the completion of certain interim rules that published in the Federal Register more than 3 years ago. USDA is taking this action because the published interim rules have been fully implemented and no further rulemaking publication is required.

DATES:

The interim rules are completed as of September 10, 2019.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Michael Poe, Telephone Number: [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

To promote transparency in regulatory planning, the Administration, beginning with the Spring 2017 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, published for the first time an “inactive” list of agency regulatory actions that were under review but not included in the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. Such “inactive” actions allow agencies to take additional time to review a regulatory or deregulatory action and to preserve the regulatory identification number (RIN) and title for possible future use. After further review, and to clean out a backlog of older, obsolete RINs, USDA is taking this action to reduce its regulatory backlog and focus its resources on higher priority actions. The Department's actions are part of an overall regulatory reform strategy to reduce regulatory burden on the public and to ensure that future Unified Agendas of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions provided the public accurate information about rulemakings the Department intends to undertake. USDA reviewed its pending regulatory actions listed as “inactive.” This review focused on interim rules that published in the Federal Register more than 3 years ago, and for which no final rule has been issued. The agency identified 20 such regulatory actions.

Although not required to do so by the Administrative Procedure Act or by regulations of the Office of the Federal Register, the agency believes the public interest is best served by announcing in the Federal Register that it has fully implemented these 20 items. Therefore, for the reasons set forth above, USDA announces that it has fully completed the 20 rulemaking initiatives which were published in the Federal Register on the dates indicated in the table below and that no further rulemaking publication is required.

Agency	RIN	Title	Published action	Date	FR cite
OSEC	0503-AA49	Agricultural Career and Employment Grants Program	IFR	11/8/2011	76 FR 69114
FAS	0551-AA80	Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers	IFR	3/1/2010	75 FR 9087
NRCS	0578-AA45	Environmental Quality Incentives Program	IFR	1/15/2009	74 FR 2293
NRCS	0578-AA47	Wetlands Reserve Program	IFR	1/15/2009	74 FR 2317
FSA	0560-AH43	Emergency Conservation Program	IFR	5/26/2006	71 FR 30263
FSA	0560-AH66	Interest Rates on Farm Service Agency Farm Loan Programs Guaranteed Loans	IFR	3/4/2013	78 FR 13999
FSA	0560-AH89	Emergency Forest Restoration Program	IFR	11/17/2010	75 FR 70083
FSA	0560-AH98	Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program	IFR	7/8/2010	75 FR 39135
FSA	0560-AI06	Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program	IFR	4/9/2013	78 FR 21015
FSA	0560-AI11	Crop Assistance Program	IFR	10/25/2010	75 FR 65423
FSA	0560-AI20	Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program	IFR	12/15/2014	79 FR 74562
FSA	0560-AI25	Farm Loan Programs, Entity Eligibility Changes	IFR	10/8/2014	79 FR 60739
FSA	0560-AI26	Conservation Compliance	IFR	4/24/2015	80 FR 22873
FSA	0560-AI30	Conservation Reserve Program	IFR	7/16/2015	80 FR 41987
RBS	0570-AA71	Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program	IFR	5/28/2010	75 FR 30114
RBS	0570-AA74	Re-Powering Assistance Payments to Eligible Biorefineries	IFR	2/11/2011	76 FR 7916
RBS	0570-AA80	Rural Business Investment Program	IFR	12/23/2011	76 FR 80217
RBS	0570-AA92	Rural Business Development Grant	IFR	3/25/2015	80 FR 15665
RBS	0570-AA94	Strategic Economic and Community Development	IFR	5/20/2015	80 FR 28807
FNS	0584-AD60	Direct Certification and Certification of Homeless, Migrant and Runaway Children	IFR	4/25/2011	76 FR 22785

Dated: August 28, 2019.

Rebeckah Adcock,

Regulatory Reform Officer and Senior Adviser to the Secretary.